Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:The Culture of Health Care
Unit:Health Care Settings The Places Where Care is Delivered
Lecture:Departments and services
Interrelationships between health care organizations
Medical data use and impact
Slide content:Health Care Provider Organizational Chart 3.3 Chart: Example of a health care organizational structure. Hickman, 2012. CC-BY-NC-SA . 6
Slide notes:This organizational chart displays an example of a simple health care provider structure representing commonly found divisions with their corresponding departments. This chart is not intended to be exhaustive. The first box, management, links to every division. Before it reaches the divisions in the third row, it connects by a dotted line to medical staff, a quasi-autonomous division that usually reports to the chief medical officer or the chief executive officer. The five divisions and example departments within those divisions are Nursing (with nursing units and nursing education departments); Clinical support services (with physical therapy, radiology, and social services departments); Ancillary (with laboratory, transportation, and food services departments); Information (with admitting, medical records, and information technology departments); and Facilities management (with housekeeping, maintenance, and security departments). Health care organizational charts can vary from this depiction. For example, the laboratory department might be part of the clinical support services division in some organizations, since a large part of the laboratorys function is directly related to patient care. As another example, information technology may be designated as a division instead of as a department under a division. Many departments have functions that cross divisions. Large providers, such as integrated delivery systems, large specialty hospitals, and academic medical centers, typically require complex organizational charts. Smaller organizations, such as small community hospitals, may use an organizational chart similar to our example. Some providers, such as independently owned ambulatory facilities, outpatient clinics, physician office practice groups, and home health agencies, usually have simpler charts than the one displayed here. 6